Eagan: Papal silence on abuse speaks volumes

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U.S. Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley celebrates Mass in his titular church of Santa Maria alla Vittoria in Rome, Sunday, March 10, 2013. Cardinals from around the world gather this week in a conclave to elect a new pope following the stunning resignation of Benedict XVI. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. Yet several names have come up time repeatedly as strong contenders for the job. O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston, is among those considered to have a credible shot at the papacy. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

U.S. Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley celebrates Mass in his titular church of Santa Maria alla Vittoria in Rome, Sunday, March 10, 2013. Cardinals from around the world gather this week in a conclave to elect a new pope following the stunning resignation of Benedict XVI. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. Yet several names have come up time repeatedly as strong contenders for the job. O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston, is among those considered to have a credible shot at the papacy. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

In this picture provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis delivers his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the City and to the World) message from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

Faithful crowd St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, May 1, 2011. Pope Benedict XVI beatified Pope John Paul II before more than a million faithful in St. Peter's Square and surrounding streets Sunday, moving the beloved former pontiff one step closer to possible sainthood. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

A partial view of the over one million faithful crowding St. Peter's Square and surrounding streets at the Vatican during the beatification of late Pope John Paul II, Sunday, May 1, 2011. Pope Benedict XVI beatified his predecessor in the fastest beatification in modern times. (AP Photo/Filippo Monteforte, Pool)

Here’s the great paradox of Pope Francis. His sincere and humble outreach to the poor and marginalized has inspired millions. Yet his embrace hasn’t extended to the very group his fellow priests, and the church itself, tormented by their crimes and cover-up: survivors of clergy sex abuse.

And the news that the Vatican has defrocked 400 priest abusers over the past two years changed nothing.

It was Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict, who defrocked them. We’re still waiting to see if Francis finally brings to justice the priests and the bishops who covered for them.

Four hundred is but a tiny percentage of the likely thousands of predator priests worldwide. To put it in another perspective, there have been 276 priests accused of sexual abuse in the Boston archdiocese alone, according to BishopAccountability.org, a website that tracks the church’s continued mishandling of the abuse crisis.

Defrocking only means these abusers aren’t priests anymore. They can certainly molest again. We don’t know their names or if they’ve been reported to police. For all we know, one could be living next door.

SNAP, the abuse survivors network, just identified a Catholic brother listed among accused abusers by the diocese of Los Angeles. He now works as a chaplain in Massachusetts, at a North Shore mall.

“The main point here is that police and parents need the names of predators,” SNAP’s David Clohessy says. “This was all more about damage control than children’s safety.”

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of ?Bishop-?Accountabilty.org, suspects this defrocking announcement may be an attempt to deflect attention from the Vatican’s embarrassing stonewalling of the United Nation’s Committee on the Rights of the Child meeting in Geneva Thursday.

Two Vatican officials there refused — yet again — to provide data on abuse cases. And they reiterated the church’s inexplicable position that it won’t demand its workers report abuse allegations to police, as teachers, doctors and others who witness them are mandated to do here and around the world.

On Holy Thursday last year, Pope Francis wowed the world when he washed the feet of teenaged prisoners, boys and girls. But he hasn’t made even a symbolic gesture of mercy toward abuse survivors. And he just refused a prosecutor’s request to extradite from the Vatican to the Dominican Republic an archbishop accused of molesting five Dominican boys, Barrett Doyle reports.

“No one can believe this compassionate, feisty pope seems almost unable to say the words ‘clergy sex abuse,’ ” Doyle said. “He could change all this in a heartbeat.”

But Pope Francis hasn’t. And nearly a year into his papacy, we’re still waiting for some sign that he will.